A  NEW  PROBLEM 


NATIONAL  LIBERAL  IMMIGRATION  LEAGUE 

For  the  Proper  Regulation  and  Better  Distribution  of  Immigration 

o 

150  Nassau  Street 
New  York 


42— FEB.  26.  MO 


EDITORIALS 


3 


A  NEW  PROBLEM 

Among  the  many  problems  which 
confront  the  American  people,  few 
have  thought  of  placing  emigration. 
Yet,  as  will  be  noted  from  an  article 
in  another  part  of  the  Review,  pre¬ 
pared  at  our  request  by  a  writer  who 
has  made  a  study  of  the  subject,  scores 
of  thousands  of  citizens,  who  cOuld 
hardly  be  described  as  lacking  in  this 
world’s  goods,  are  migrating  across 
the  northern  border.  It  may  well  be 
said  of  them  that  they  are  taking  with 
them  the  fat  of  the  land.  Agricultur¬ 
ists  who,  apparently,  have  succeeded 
in  the  United  States,  they  are  carry¬ 
ing  over  into  the  land  of  the  “Lady  of 
the  Snows,”  an  average  of  $1,000  in 
money  and  settler’s  effects  for  each 
man,  woman  and  child.  It  may  be 
argued,  “Why  be  alarmed  over  a  loss 
of  $60,000,000  or  $80,000,000  a  year? 
This  is  a  mere  bagatelle  in  compari¬ 
son  with  the  annual  increase  in  the 
wealth  of  the  country.”  While  it  may 
be  true,  relatively,  that  this  is  a  small 
sum  for  this  country  to  lose,  there  are 
other  reasons,  also,  why  the  United 
States  should  prefer  to  have  these  emi¬ 
grants  remain  here.  A  successful  ag¬ 
riculturist  is  an  important  asset  to  a 
country,  especially  to  a  land  in  which 
the  prices  of  food  are  rising  and  the 
difference  between  domestic  produc¬ 
tion  and  domestic  consumption  ap¬ 
pears  to  be  a  dwindling  surplus. 
Moreover,  men  of  the  stamp  of  these 
American  emigrants  are  a  political  as¬ 
set.  No  democracy  can  afford  to  lose 
citizens  of  the  type  of  those  who  are 
going  over  into  Canada.  While  one 
may  not  blame  Canada  for  encourag¬ 
ing  the  immigration  of  these  people, 
nor  the  emigrants  themselves  for  de¬ 
siring  to  better  their  economical  con¬ 
dition,  yet  one  may  reasonably  ask  that 
some  effort  be  made  to  retain  them  in 
the  United  States.  Is  there  no  region 
which  requires  their  energies  and  cap¬ 
ital  that  could  offer  them  counter  in¬ 
ducements  ? 

It  has  seemed  to  us  that  possibly  the 
South  would  welcome  men  of  the 
character  of  these  men.  With  this  in 


mind  we  invited  Mr.  Hugh  MacRae, 
a  banker  of  North  Carolina  and  New 
York,  who  has  given  the  subject  of  the 
development  of  the  South  a  great  deal 
of  study,  to  write  an  article  regarding 
the  opportunities  offered  in  this  sec¬ 
tion  of  our  country.  This  article, 
which  is  printed  in  another  part  of  the 
magazine,  is  a  revelation.  His  state¬ 
ment  of  the  resources  and  natural  ad¬ 
vantages  of  the  South  will  astonish 
many  persons.  It  may  be  added  that, 
already,  there  is  a  movement  from  the 
high  priced  lands  of  Iowa,  Minnesota 
and  the  Dakotas  into  portions  of  Vir¬ 
ginia  where  land  is  still  low  priced. 
This  movement  is  made  up  of  men 
who  have  sold  their  holdings  in  the 
West  at  the  good  prices  prevailing 
with  the  idea  of  investing  in  lower 
priced  lands  elsewhere.  They  are 
coming  to  Virginia  for  the  same  rea¬ 
son  that  many  more  of  their  neighbors 
are  going  to  Canada.  It  is  the  desire 
of  the  Review  to  obtain  definite  sug¬ 
gestions  as  to  the  best  means  of  turn¬ 
ing  this  northbound  stream  toward  the 
South.  What  practical  inducements 
will  the  South  make? 


lV,  IH  .1^ 


’  Z.1  "3 

\n(  OA 

OUR  HUMAN  CONTRIBUTION 
TO  CANADA 

A  REPORT 

BY  HERBERT  FRANCIS  SHERWOOD 


ECENTLY  an  American  weekly 
whose  mission  is  the  entertain¬ 
ment  and  instruction  of  Eng¬ 
lish  speaking  people  through  clever 
and  witty  comments  on  contemporary 
life,  published  the  following: 

Good  Work  in  a  New  Line. 

We  certainly  are  smart  people  in  this 
country,  and  we  do  well  many  things  that 
we  undertake,  even  when  they  are  novelties. 

For  example:  Since  civilization  first  in¬ 
truded  here  we  have,  until  very  lately,  done 
hardly  anything  at  all  in  the  line  of  emi¬ 
gration.  But  three  or  four  years  ago  some 
of  our  people  began  slipping  over  the  north¬ 
western  border  into  Canada.  And  last  year 
we  passed  over  to  that  country  59,832  citi¬ 
zens  who  took  with  them  SIXTY  MILL¬ 
ION  DOLLARS! 

That  was  in  1908.  Last  year  we 
“passed  over”  more  than  90,000. 

Speaking  literally,  this  was  and  is 
no  joke.  James  J.  Hill  recently  con¬ 
gratulated  the  Canadians  upon  the 
quality  of  the  immigration  they  are 
receiving  from  the  United  States. 
The  quality  of  these  emigrants,  drawn 
by  the  opportunities  offered  on  the 
northern  side  of  the  line,  is  such  that 
the  question  is  being  asked,  “Cannot 
some  section  of  the  United  States  of¬ 
fer  inducements  which  will  counteract 
the  tendency  of  desirable  citizens  to 
remove  beyond  the  borders?” 

Canada’s  immigration  somewhat  re¬ 
sembles  the  earlier  immigration  of  the 
United  States  in  its  racial  composition, 
consisting  largely  of  natives  of  the 
British  Isles  and  the  United  States. 
While  the  Dominion  has  had  a  steadily 
increasing  flow  of  immigration  rang¬ 
ing  from  21,716  in  1897  to  262,469  in 


the  fiscal  year  of  1907-08,  the  conti¬ 
nental  immigration  has  exceeded  in 
only  one  year,  more  than  a  third  of 
the  total.  In  1897,  the  percentage  was 
36.4.  It  has  usually  been  below  30 
per  cent.  British  immigration  has  not 
fallen  below  37  per  cent,  in  any  of  the 
years  referred  to  and  averages  nearly 
one-half  of  the  total. 

The  Canadian  immigration  from  the 
United  States  in  1897  was  2,412,  or 
11  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  In  the 
course  of  the  fiscal  year  of  1905-06, 
the  number  of  migrants  from  the 
United  States  over  the  Canadian  line 
was  57,919,  or  30.6  per  cent,  of  the 
stream.  In  1908  the  number  who  con¬ 
cluded  to  transfer  their  homes  to  the 
Dominion  numbered  59,832*  They 
constituted  almost  exactly  two-fifths 
of  the  total  Canadian  immigration  for 
that  year.  Between  January  1,  1897, 
and  March  31,  1909,  out  of  a  total  of 
1,366,651  immigrants,  425,470  were 
from  the  United  States.  Of  this  num¬ 
ber  299,603  entered  Canada  within  the 
last  six  years.  This  is  at  the  rate  of 
approximately  50,000  a  year. 

In  the  year  1907-08  the  American 
immigrants  carried  into  Canada  $52,- 
000,000  in  cash  and  settlers’  effects. 
This  was  a  trifle  less  than  a  thousand 
dollars  a  head,  including  women  and 
children.  In  the  last  fiscal  year  it 
equalled  almost  exactly  this  amount 
per  capita.  These  were  no  ordinary 
immigrants ! 

What  was  the  character  of  this 
American  immigration  as  indicated  by 
their  occupations?  In  the  course  of 
the  period  beginning  with  the  fiscal 


5 


6 


An  Attraction,  for  American  Immigrants 
Battery  of  Harvesting  Machines  on  a  Canadian  Wheat  Field 


AMERICAN  IMMIGRATION  TO  CANADA 


7 


year  1903-04  and  concluding  with  the 
last  fiscal  year,  299,603  persons,  as  I 
have  said,  emigrated  from  this  coun¬ 
try  to  Canada.  Of  this  number,  198,- 
240  were  farmers  and  farm  laborers, 
19,476  were  general  laborers,  12,058 
mechanics,  7,326  clerks,  traders,  etc., 
3,360  miners  and  401  domestics. 

Canada  has  been  selective  to  a 
greater  degree  in  her  immigration 
than  has  the  United  States.  The  Do¬ 
minion  authorities,  aggressive  in  so 
many  directions,  have  not  hesitated  to 
take  active  steps  to  obtain  the  char¬ 
acter  of  immigrants  desired,  and  to 
discourage  the  embarkation  of  those 
who  would  not  fit  into  the  economic 
requirements  of  the  country.  Doubt¬ 
less,  she  has  been  assisted  in  her  se¬ 
lective  efforts  by  competition  with  the 
labor  market  of  the  United  States. 
She  has  laid  emphasis  upon  the  oppor¬ 
tunities  for  the  man  who  desires  to 
work  upon  the  land.  Canada  pays 
bonuses  for  the  kind  of  immigrants 
she  desires  and  the  railroad  companies 
advertise  these  opportunities.  The  ef¬ 
fectiveness  of  her  methods  is  demon¬ 
strated  in  the  fact  that  within  the  last 
twelve  years,  30  per  cent,  of  the  immi¬ 
grants  from  Continental  countries,  21 
per  cent,  of  those  from  England  and 
Wales,  22  per  cent,  from  Scotland,  24 
per  cent,  from  Ireland,  and  43  per 
cent,  from  the  United  States  made 
homestead  entries  in  the  Western 
provinces  of  the  Dominion.  An  im¬ 
pression  of  the  proportion  of  the  im¬ 
migration  thus  disposed  of  may  be 
gained  from  a  knowledge  of  the  fact 
that  the  average  number  of  persons 
for  each  entry  is  2.5.  This  does  not 
take  into  account  the  many  thousands 
from  European  countries  who  have 
settled  in  other  parts  of  the  Dominion 
as  farmers,  farm  laborers  and  do¬ 
mestics. 

The  following  paragraph  regarding 
Canada’s  immigration  policy  is  taken 
from  the  year  book  for  1907  published 
by  the  authority  of  the  Canadian  gov¬ 
ernment  : 

In  the  report  of  the  Deputy  Minister  of 
the  Department  of  the  Interior,  dated  July 


15,  1907,  this  satisfactory  annual  increase 
in  the  number  of  immigrants  is  attributed 
directly  to  the  policy,  first  applied  to  the 
United  States  in  1897,  of  thoroughly  adver¬ 
tising  the  resources  of  the  Dominion  in 
agricultural  districts  by  newspapers  and  by 
the  personal  visits  of  Canadian  delegates. 
In  1896  there  was  no  immigration  into  the 
western  provinces  from  the  United  States ; 
but  in  the  fiscal  year  1897-8  there  were  over 
9,000  immigrants  from  that  country,  and  the 
number  of  new  arrivals  has  increased  an¬ 
nually  ever  since.  Similar  methods  were 
applied  to  England  in  1901  and  were  fol¬ 
lowed  by  similar  results.  Previously  the 
number  of  immigrants  from  the  United 
Kingdom  had  been  for  some  years  about 
11,000  annually.  In  1901-2  the  number  of 
British  arrivals  had  increased  to  over  17,- 
000,  and  succeeding  years  showed  a  pro¬ 
gressive  increase  until  reaching  the  present 
figure  of  132,060  in  1907. 

Here  are  the  introduction  and  some 
of  the  paragraphs  of  an  advertisement 
which  I  clipped  from  a  recent  issue 
of  a  leading  American  agricultural 
i  ournal : 

Let  the  Crops  Pay  For  Your  Home  in  the 
Famous  Bow  River  Valley  of 
SUNNY  SOUTHERN  ALBERTA 

Own  a  40  to  160-Acre  Rich  Farm  on  Our 

New,  Guaranteed-Crop-Payment  Plan. 

Only  $1.80  to  $3  Per  Acre  Down — The 

Balance  to  Be  Paid  for  Out  of  Your 

Crops  by  Agreement  of  “No  Crops — No 

Pay” — We  Will  Put  in  First  Crop — You 

Harvest  the  Profits.  .  .  . 

Hundreds  have  paid  fully  for  their  homes 
here  out  of  the  first  one  or  two  crops,  and 
made  a  splendid  living  besides.  You  don’t 
even  have  to  move  here  the  first  year.  Se¬ 
lect  your  40  or  80  acres,  or  quarter  section, 
and  let  us  start  the  first  crop  for  you  if 
you  wish,  or  come  now — as  soon  as  con¬ 
venient  for  you  to  settle  here.  .  .  . 

Climate  ideal  for  homes — splendid  trans¬ 
portation  facilities — good  roads — quick  cash 
markets — good  schools,  churches  and  neigh¬ 
bors.  Good  crops  a  certainty.  Under 
agreement,  pay  out  of  crops  for  your  land 
— “No  Crops — No  Pay” — and  more  easily 
and  quickly  own  a  clear  title  to  a  farm 
which  will  earn  you  more  money  for  life 
than  in  any  place  on  this  Continent  and  make 
you  independent.  Send  your  name  to  me 
and  say  which  book  you  want. 

WRITE  for  All  Facts  and  FIVE 
BOOKS  FREE. 

J.  S.  Dennis,  Assistant  to  2nd  Vice-Presi¬ 
dent, 

CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY. 


8 


THE  IMMIGRATION  REVIEW 


These  quotations  illustrate  a  strik¬ 
ing  difference  between  the  immigra¬ 
tion  policy  of  Canada  and  the  United 
States.  Under  our  laws  no  transpor¬ 
tation  company  may  in  any  way  stimu¬ 
late  immigration.  In  its  advertising 
it  is  limited  in  subject  matter  to  prices 
of  its  tickets,  the  character  of  the  ac¬ 
commodations  of  its  transportation 
service  and  the  schedules  of  its  sail¬ 
ings. 

Another  selective  method  which  the 
Canadian  government  employs  is  indi¬ 
cated  by  this  quotation  from  a  pam¬ 
phlet  entitled  “Immigration  Facts  and 
Figures/’  issued  by  direction  of  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior: 

The  Canadian  Government  does  not  en¬ 
courage  in  any  way  the  immigration  of 
skilled  labourers,  mechanics,  or  artisans  of 
any  sort,  and  no  effort  is  made  to  find  em¬ 
ployment  for  such  on  their  arrival. 

The  following  notice  appears  in  Immi¬ 
gration  pamphlets  issued  by  the  authority 
of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior: 

“Farmers,  farm  labourers  and  female  do¬ 
mestic  servants  are  the  only  people  the  Can¬ 
adian  Immigration  Department  advises  to 
come  to  Canada.  All  others  should  have 
definite  assurance  of  employment  in  Can¬ 
ada  before  leaving  home  and  have  money 


enough  to  support  them  for  a  time  in  case 
of  disappointment.” 

A  bonus  of  £i  on  persons  18  years  of 
age  and  over  and  ios.  between  i  and  18 
years,  is  paid  to  selected  Steamship  Book¬ 
ing  Agents  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
and  in  France,  Belgium,  Holland,  Denmark, 
Norway,  Sweden  and  Finland,  on  certain 
classes  of  unskilled  workers  in  these  coun¬ 
tries  who  come  to  Canada  to  engage  in  farm 
work  or  domestic  service  and  declare  their 
intention  of  so  engaging  before  the  Domin¬ 
ion  Immigration  Agent  at  ocean  port  of 
arri  val. 

A  commission  of  $3.00  on  a  man,  $2.00  on 
a  woman,  and  $1.00  on  a  child  is  paid  to 
certain  sub-agents  in  the  United  States  on 
bona  fide  settlers  induced  by  them  to  settle 
in  Western  Canada. 

In  this  pamphlet  it  is  indicated  that 
from  July  1,  1904,  to  March  31,  1909, 
bonuses  were  paid  on  16.47  Per  cent, 
of  the  British  immigrants,  10.39  Per 
cent,  of  the  immigrants  from  the  con¬ 
tinent  and  5.60  per  cent,  of  those  com¬ 
ing  from  the  United  States.  In  other 
words,  practically  only  one-twentieth 
of  the  immigration  from  the  United 
States  was  stimulated  by  agents.  It 
is  evident  that  the  chief  stimuli  were 
repots,  printed,  epistolary  and  oral,  of 
the  favorable  lj;ad  cc  Editions  existing 
in  Western  Canada.,  ajd  the  favorable 
ter  jj  of  settlement.  .As  the  total  num- 


FamiLy  of  Immigrants  Camping  in  the  Open  Near  Winnipeg,  Man.,  Canada 


THE  POTENTIAL  SOUTH 


9 


ber  of  immigrants  of  all  nationalities 
who  have  made  homestead  entries  in 
Western  Canada  is  greater  than  the 
number  of  those  upon  whom  bonuses 
were  paid,  it  may  be  accepted  that  the 
Government  of  Canada  feels  that  the 
policy  of  paying  bonuses  has  been  a 
satisfactory  one. 

The  settlement  of  immigrants  upon 
the  land  is  further  facilitated  by  the 
railroads  which  offer  a  special  rate  to 
immigrants  in  connection  with  their 
steamship  tickets,  or  immediately  upon 
their  arrival  in  the  country,  or  to  bona 
fide  settlers  from  the  United  States 
when  moving  into  Canada.  This  rate, 
which  is  approximately  a  cent  a  mile, 
is  not  granted  for  subsequent  travel 
in  the  Dominion.  This  eliminates  dis¬ 
criminating  internal  rates. 

No  fault  can  be  found  with  Canada 
for  desiring  settlers  who  shall  build 
up  the  country  and  develop  her  re¬ 
sources.  Nor  can  one  complain  of 
those  who  endeavor  to  obtain  greater 
prosperity  by  taking  advantage  of 
what  seem  to  be  more  favorable  op¬ 
portunities.  From  all  reports  the  im¬ 
migrants  from  the  United  States  are 
of  superior  character,  fitted  in  every 


way  to  occupy  a  high  level  in  the  life 
of  their  new  home.  We  of  the  United 
States  are  frankly  glad,  or  should  be, 
if  the  character  of  our  contribution  to 
the  citizenship  of  the  land  of  “Our 
Lady  of  the  Snows”  is  such  that  it  is 
making  it  easier  for  her  to  solve  her 
problems  and  gain  new  levels  in 
growth.  Nevertheless,  there  is  an¬ 
other  phase  of  the  subject  worthy  of 
our  consideration.  The  political  value 
of  the  agriculturist  as  a  balance  wheel 
in  a  democracy,  such  as  'the  United 
States,  must  not  be  forgotten.  More¬ 
over,  Mr.  Hill  has  pointed  out,  and  the 
increasing  prices  of  farm  products 
lend  some  color  to  his  assertion,  that 
agriculture  should  be  more  generally 
and  intensively  developed  in  this  coun¬ 
try  if  we  are  to  continue  to  feed  our¬ 
selves  from  our  own  products.  In¬ 
deed,  while  one  out  of  every  98.5 
American  farmers,  taking  the  some¬ 
what  antiquated  figures  of  the  last  cen¬ 
sus  as  a  basis  of  calculation,  is  taking 
up  Canadian  land,  colonies  of  Dutch 
and  Northern  Italians  are  seeking  in 
this  country  to  improve  their  condition 
by  intensive  methods  of  cultivation 
and  showing  us  how  to  do  it. 


THE  POTENTIAL  SOUTH 

ITS  YOUTH  AND  ITS  CALL  TO  YOUTH 
BY  HUGH  MACRAE 


HY  go  South? 

Advice  on  this  subject  to  be 
effective  must  be  supported 
by  reason  and  facts. 

The  offer  of  the  South,— -the  South 
of  to-day  and  to-morrow — ^intensely 
interesting.  By  it  thousands  are  being 
attracted. 

When  years  ago  Horace  Greely  told 
the  young  man  to  go  West  and  “grow 
up  with  the  country,”  he  spoke  with 
prophetic  vision.  One’s  voice  does  not 
carry  far  in  the  teeth  of  a  gale,  but  the 


right  word  spoken  at  the  right  time 
may  as  easily  go  around  the  world  as 
a  wireless  message. 

The  West  was  young  and  the  man 
was  young.  A  great  West  meant,  by 
reflex  action,  a  greater  East.  The 
West  being  now  well  grown,  both  East 
and  West  from  experience  know  that 
a  greater  South  means  a  greater 
country. 

While  the  South  in  its  present  stage 
of  development  compares  favorably 


10 


THE  IMMIGRATION  REVIEW 


with  the  entire  United  States  of  forty 
years  ago,  and  while  it  has  made  great 
strides  since  the  impoverishment  in¬ 
cident  to  the  Civil  War,  it  still  has 
the  advantage  and  merit  (for  youth  is 
merit)  of  being  relatively  a  full  gen¬ 
eration  younger  than  the  rest  of  the 
country. 

It  is,  to-day,  the  South  which  has 
the  greatest  natural  wealth  and  po¬ 
tential  vigor,  which  has  the  “growing 
up”  to  do. 

By  going  southward,  the  young  man 
can  combine  the  growth  of  two  gener¬ 
ations  in  one  lifetime. 

The  South  has  always  abounded  in 
opportunity.  To  bring  it  abreast  of 
the  more  fully  developed  sections,  its 
need  is  men.  The  coming  of  young 
men  to  avail  themselves  of  the  natural 
wealth  will  create  added  opportunities, 
until  quickly  the  level  is  brought  to 
that  of  the  North  and  West.  This  is 
a  consequence  as  natural  as  the  phe¬ 
nomenon  of  “water  seeking  its  own 
level.” 

When  we  look  clearly  at  the  facts, 
we  find  in  the  “older  sections”  that 
making  a  living  is  becoming  difficult 
and,  under  certain  recurring  economic 
conditions,  is  at  times  even  precarious. 
The  effort  of  the  average  man  is  suf¬ 
ficient  only  to  insure  the  necessaries 
of  life.  If  he  is  a  mechanic,  he  must, 
during  the  past  two  years,  have  given 
much  thought  to  the  dangers  of  the 
industrial  situation ;  if  he  is  a  farmer, 
he  finds  it  necessary  to  work  “like  a 
beaver”  during  the  short  summers  in 
order  to  provide  subsistence  and  fuel 
for  long  and  frigid  winters.  The  man 
who  advances  beyond  the  average  can¬ 
not  relax.  If,  through  sustained  ef¬ 
fort,  he  acquires  a  living,  we  may  con¬ 
clude  that  to  gain  comfort  and  wealth, 
he  must  in  some  way  get  the  benefit  of 
the  “unearned  increment.” 

A  great  Englishman  has  defined 
“luck”  as  “being  prepared  to  take  ad¬ 
vantage  of  an  opportunity,”  It  fol¬ 
lows  that  one  must  be  in  the  track  of 
opportunity. 


It  is  not  important  to  exploit  mate¬ 
rial  progress,  to  show  what  man  has 
done,  except  in  so  far  as  it  indicates 
what  may  fairly  be  expected.  For 
the  purpose  of  getting  a  starting  point, 
a  base  from  which  we  can  correctly 
forecast  the  future,  it  will  be  advan¬ 
tageous  to  consider  some  comparative 
statistics  showing  the  South’s  almost 
magical  recuperative  power. 

Old  fallacies  as  to  the  South'  are 
gradually  disappearing.  Thirty  years 
ago,  a  great  authority  on  cotton  spin¬ 
ning  said  that  cotton  could  not  be  suc¬ 
cessfully  manufactured  in  the  South. 
Since  then,  note  the  progress :  In 
i8qo  the  South’s  spindles  had  in¬ 
creased  to  1,712,930,  about  one-third 
of  those  of  Massachusetts.  In  1907 
tne  South  had  10,650,000  spindles, 
having  passed  Massachusetts ;  and  the 
States  of  South  Carolina  and  North 
Carolina  stood  second  and  third  re¬ 
st)  ctively  in  the  list  of  cotton  manu¬ 
facturing  States,  Massachusetts  being 
first  and  Rhode  Island  fourth. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  the  Manu¬ 
facturers'  Record,  the  highest  author¬ 
ity  on  matters  relating  to  Southern  de¬ 
velopment,  the  following  statistics  are 
published.  The  table  shows  the  gain 
made  during  the  twenty-nine  years 
from  1890  to  1909: 

Population,  from  16,369,960  in  1880  to  27,- 
437>8o9  in  1909;  aggregate  length  of  rail¬ 
roads,  20,612  miles  in  1880  to  67,866  in  1909 ; 
capital  in  cotton  mills,  $21,000,000  in  1880  to 
$281,375,000  in  1909;  cotton  used  by  South¬ 
ern  mills,  108,694,989  lbs.  in  1880  to  1,236,- 
011,000  in  1909;  capital  in  manufacturing, 
$257,244,5644  in  1880  to  $2,110,000,000  in 
1909;  products  of  manufacturing,  $457,454,- 
777  in  1880  to  $2,675,000,000  in  1909;  pig 
iron  produced,  397,301  tons  in  1880  to  3,- 
445,221  in  1907;  coke  made,  372,436  tons  in 
1880  to  9,289,471  in  1907;  coal,  6,037,003 
tons  in  1880  to  82,822,851  in  1909;  value  of 
lumber  products,  $39,000,000  in  1880  to 
$380,000,000  in  1909;  petroleum  produced, 
179,000  bbls.  in  1880  to  28,292,537  in  1909; 
phosphates  marketed,  190,763  long  tons  in 
1880  to  2,373,028  in  1909;  exports  of  merch¬ 
andise  from  Southern  ports,  $264,905,753  in 
1880  to  $619,278,874  in  1909;  value  of  farm 
products,  $660,000,000  in  1880  to  $2,550,- 
000,000  in  1909;  value  of  property,  $7,505,- 
000,000  in  1880  to  $21,211,179,600  in  1909. 


THE  POTENTIAL  SOUTH 


U 


The  recuperation  of  the  South  dur¬ 
ing  fifty  years  can  be  illustrated  by  the 
fact  that  it  now  has  seventy-two  mil¬ 
lion  dollars  more  capital  in  cotton 
mills,  twice  as  much  capital  invested 
in  general  manufacturing,  and  five 
thousand  million  dollars  more  wealth 
than  the  entire  United  States  had  in 
i860. 

Taking  shorter  periods,  we  find  the 
progress  equally  striking.  In  the  ten 
years  just  passed,  the  bank  deposits 
have  increased  from  $519,377,452  to 
$1,386,600,000. 

The  value  of  farm  products,  not  in¬ 
cluding  the  animal  industry,  for  the 
past  year,  1909,  was  one  hundred  mil¬ 
lion  dollars  more  than  the  value  of 
farm  products  of  the  whole  country 
twenty  years  ago,  in  1890.  With  the 
same  rate  of  growth  for  another  pe¬ 
riod  of  twenty  years  the  agricultural 
products  of  the  South  will  rise  to  a 
yearly  value  of  nine  billion  five  hun¬ 
dred  million  dollars,  or  about  seven 
hundred  and  forty  million  dollars  more 
than  the  past  year’s  production  of  the 
entire  country. 

There  are  now  two  hundred  and 
sixty-two  different  kinds  of  manufac¬ 
turing  carried  on  in  the  South,  among 
them  many  industries  worthy  of  ex¬ 
tended  comment.  In  this  connection 
we  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  the 
success  of  Southern  industries,  as  well 
as  of  its  agriculture,  is  in  large  meas¬ 
ure  due  to  favorable  climatic  condi¬ 
tions.  A  manufacturer  who  has  more 
hours  of  daylight  in  which  to  work, 
who  can  save  fuel  for  heating  his  fac¬ 
tory,  and  who  can  employ  labor  which 
for  equal  comforts  has  a  lower  cost  of 
living,  has  an  advantage  bearing  on 
his  success. 

It  is  difficult  to  form  a  conception  of 
the  South’s  natural  wealth  in  timber, 
in  oil,  phosphate,  iron  ores  and  coal 
stored  up  and  in  reserve  for  the  bene¬ 
fit  of  the  present  and  future  genera¬ 
tions.  We  may  say  briefly  that  two- 
thirds  of  the  country’s  remaining  tim¬ 
ber  supply  is  in  the  South ;  there  are 
known  reserves  of  four  hundred  and 


ninety-four  thousand  million  tons  of 
coal,  or  more  than  twice  as  much  as 
the  supply  of  Europe  and  ten  thou¬ 
sand  million  tons  or  iron  ore  among 
what  we  may  call  the  visible  assets ; 
and  at  the  present  rate  of  consumption 
by  the  United  States,  it  is  estimated 
that  the  explored  coal  supply  would 
last  more  than  one  thousand  years. 

Geological  conditions  have  been 
beneficial  in  another  way  less  com¬ 
monly  recognized  but  perhaps  of 
greater  importance.  During  the  Gla¬ 
cial  Epoch,  when  all  of  the  northern 
half  of  North  America  was  incased  in 
ice,  the  glaciers  extended  southward 
only  as  far  as  Maryland  or  the  north¬ 
ern  part  of  Virginia.  The  South  es¬ 
caped  their  denuding  effect ;  the  grind¬ 
ing  of  the  soils  from  the  surface  and 
their  washing  away  by  the  rush  of 
water  from  melting  glaciers.  It  is 
due  to  this  fact  that  the  South  has 
in  place,  even  to  the  mountain  tops, 
deep  and  rich  loamy  soils  in  great  va¬ 
riety.  It  is  these  undisturbed  soils 
which  permit  of  rapid  reforestation, 
and  also  offer  the  immense  possibili¬ 
ties  for  expansion  of  profitable  agri¬ 
culture. 

It  is  necessary  to  consider  also  water 
powers  as  a  great  factor  in  the  future 
production  of  wealth.  Here  is  an¬ 
other  debt  to  Nature ;  the  sun  taking 
water  from  the  ocean  and  producing 
the  warmth  and  consequent  atmos¬ 
pheric  conditions  which  cause  the 
moisture  laden  air  of  the  South  At¬ 
lantic  to  travel  westward  towards  the 
Appalachian  Mountains  and  north¬ 
ward  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Dur¬ 
ing  this  journey  the  moisture  is  precip¬ 
itated,  and  after  being  retared  for  a 
time  by  the  forest  growth,  takes  its 
course  through  innumerable  streams 
down  the  slopes  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
back  to  sea  level.  The  Secretary  of 
Agriculture  estimates  that  this  natural 
process  represents  a  utilizable  power, 
on  streams  flowing  from  the  Southern 
Appalachian  Mountains,  of  five  mil¬ 
lion  horse-power,  and  this  can  be 
doubled  by  utilizing  the  storage  which 
will  be  incident  to  the  erection  of 


12 


THE  IMMIGRATION  REVIEW 


dams  for  the  development  of  electri¬ 
cal  power  plants.  More  than  this, 
every  city,  town,  village  and  farm  in 
the  South  can  have  this  power  deliv¬ 
ered  to  it  in  any  desired  quantity.  At 
the  present  time  it  is  practical  to  de¬ 
liver  power  by  electrical  transmission 
a  distance  of  two  hundred  miles  from 
the  point  of  generation,  and  engineers 
are  considering  the  question  of  mak¬ 
ing  deliveries  at  a  distance  of  as  much 
as  five  hundred  miles.  Practically 
every  important  point  in  the  South, 
including  every  seaport  from  Norfolk 
to  Jacksonville,  is  within  a  radius  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  one  or 
another  of  the  great  power  sites. 

Now  let  us  consider  the  great  forces 
of  Nature  that  work  for  the  South.  It 
is  usual  to  ascribe  too  much  to  man’s 
efficiency  and  wit  and  too  little  to 
Nature.  The  fundamental  and  over¬ 
whelming  things  are  the  natural  condi¬ 
tions, — sunlight,  warmth,  fertile  soil, 
abundant  rainfall.  These  are  basic. 
They  are  infinite  forces  which  make 
their  influence  felt  for  all  time. 

We  have  already  referred  to  the  fact 
that  longer  hours  of  daylight  add  to 
the  productive  capacity  of  every  indus¬ 
try.  The  beneficial  influence  of  sun¬ 
light  upon  plant  life  is  too  well  known 
to  need  comment ;  so  it  is  necessary  to 
devote  especial  attention  only  to  the 
important  parts  played  by  warmth, 
rainfall  and  fertile  soil.  These  are 
what  the  South,  the  great  temperate 
zone,  offers  to  the  prospective  settler 
in  a  measure  greater  than  they  are 
offered  in  any  other  part  of  the  world 
to-day. 

Human  affairs  are  influenced  bene¬ 
ficially,  and  to  a  remarkable  extent, 
bv  heat  units,  and  for  practical  pur¬ 
poses  we  may  consider  that  the  sun, 
directly  or  indirectly,  is  the  source  of 
heat  utilized. 

Provided  we  remain  within  the  tem¬ 
perate  zone,  we  may  admit  a  beneficial 
effect  from  every  additional  degree  of 
heat.  For  the  farmer,  longer  seasons 
mean  a  greater  number  of  crops  per 


year ;  warm  winters  require  the  use  of 
Ess  fuel  and  reduce  the  cost  of  the 
necessaries  of  life.  These  are  ques¬ 
tions  which  to-day  are  interesting  a 
vast  number  of  people. 

As  to  moisture.  Take  a  Govern¬ 
ment  rainfall  map;  start  in  Virginia, 
at  the  mouth  of  Chesapeake  Bay ;  trace 
a  line  westward  until  you  reach  Ken¬ 
tucky  ;  thence  in  a  southeasterly  direc¬ 
tion,  crossing  Tennessee  to  the  north¬ 
ern  part  of  Alabama ;  thence  west 
through  Son -hern  Arkansas  and  south 
through  Eastern  Texas  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  you  will  find  to  the  east 
and  south  of  this  line,  that  there  is  the 
greatest  and  most  evenly  distributed 
rainfall  to  be  found  in  the  United 
States. 

To  be  more  specific :  On  looking  to 
the  West  and  Northwest,  we  find  that 
in  Nevada  and  Arizona  the  rainfall  is 
from  zero  to  io  inches  per  annum ;  in 
Wvoming,  Montana,  Dakota,  Ne¬ 
braska  and  New  Mexico,  there  are 
from  io  to  20  inches ;  in  Minnesota, 
Kansas,  Oklahoma  and  Western 
Texas,  from  20  to  30  inches ;  in  Mis¬ 
souri,  Illinois,  Ohio  and  the  western 
part  of  the  New  England  States,  from 
30  to  40  inches ;  in  Kentucky  and  the 
western  part  of  Tennessee,  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  and  Maryland,  it  is  40  to  50 
inches ;  while  in  the  States  to  the  south 
and  east  of  the  line  described,  it  is 
50  to  60  inches,  and  reaches  a  max¬ 
imum  of  from  60  to  70  inches  near 
the  Gulf  coast  of  Louisiana  and  Ala- 
bame  and  at  a  point  where  the  Gulf 
stream  impinges  on  the  east  coast  of 
North  Carolina. 

Let  us  digress  for  a  moment  to  see 
what  similar  conditions  have  actually 
done  elsewhere.  In  the  State  of 
Washington,  between  the  high  moun¬ 
tains  and  the  Pacific  Ocean,  there  is 
a  small  area  having  exceptionally 
heavy  precipitation  and,  through  some 
peculiar  influence  of  the  warm  cur¬ 
rents  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  it  has  a 
temperate  climate.  Notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  the  rainfall  comes  all  at 
one  time  of  the  year,  and  notwith- 


THE  POTENTIAL  SOUTH 


13 


4 


4 


standing  the  fact  that  this  region  is 
distant  from  the  great  centers  of  popu¬ 
lation  of  the  United  States,  and  there¬ 
fore  from  the  most  desirable  markets 
for  its  products,  land  values  have  risen 
rapidly,  and  in  this  favored  spot  one 
thousand  dollars  per  acre  is  a  fre¬ 
quently  quoted  price  for  land.  This  has 
been  made  possible  from  the  fact  that 
the  wave  of  immigration  first  took  its 
course  West,  and  there  on  the  shores 
of  the  Pacific  was  forced  to  stop. 
Then,  the  three  great  factors, — 
warmth,  fertile  soil  and  abundance  of 
moisture,  in  conjunction  with  the  ris¬ 
ing  tide  of  population,  have  worked 
this  magic.  This  illustrates  most 
strikingly  the  idea  of  “unearned  in¬ 
crement.”  Values  have  risen  because 
of  this  flow  of  brains  and  muscle  to 
take  advantage  of  these  favorable  con¬ 
ditions. 

The  wealth  of  a  country  is  based 
largely  upon  its  agriculture.  It  is  be¬ 
cause  of  this  fact  that  we  can  realize 
how  a  favorable  climate  becomes  a 
continuous  and  irresistible  force  mak¬ 
ing  for  prosperity.  The  expert  farmer 
immediately  recognizes  the  value  of 
“open  winters”  which  allow  him  to 
produce  all  the  year  around  instead  of 
finding  it  necessary  to  consume  dur¬ 
ing  the  winter  the  surplus  product  of 
his  summer’s  work. 

From  an  agricultural  standpoint, 
the  South  is  a  region  of  vast  wealth ; 
even  single  States  may  be  classed  as 
empires.  The  warm  fertile  soils  pro¬ 
duce  with  good  profit  endless  varie¬ 
ties  of  valuable  crops,  having  a  range 
of  from  what  are  considered  Northern 
crops, — buckwheat  and  cranberries, 
through  the  entire  list  to  cotton,  sugar 
cane  and  pineapples.  With  few,  if 
any,  exceptions,  the  whole  range  of 
products  known  to  American  agri¬ 
culture  can  be  raised  in  the  South  by 
the  intelligent  farmer. 

A  study  of  the  value  per  acre  of 
crops  in  the  South  and  in  the  West, 
taken  in  connection  with  the  invest¬ 
ment  per  acre  in  land,  is  most  interest¬ 
ing.  It  has  been  shown  that  the  farm¬ 


ers  in  other  sections  can  sell  their  lands 
and  with  the  proceeds  purchase  in  the 
South  much  larger  tracts  from  which 
it  is  possible  to  get  greater  annual 
revenue.  Or  even  better,  to  purchase 
smaller  tracts  and  use  the  surplus 
capital  to  great  advantage  in  adopting 
intensive  methods  of  farming  for 
which  the  warm  Southern  soils  are 
particularly  suited. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  advantage  will 
come  from  the  extensive  planting  of 
forage  crops,  especially  vetch,  crim¬ 
son  clover,  field  peas  and  alfalfa. 
These  crops,  peculiarly  suited  to  the 
soil  and  climate,  not  only  bring  fer¬ 
tility  to  the  land  by  adding  nitrogen, 
but  will  benefit  all  agriculture  by  ex¬ 
tending  the  animal  industry  and  con¬ 
verting  the  South  into  a  dairying  and 
cattle  raising  country. 

When  we  consider  that  the  cotton 
crop  alone  this  year,  including  the  seed 
and  by-products,  will  bring  to  the 
farmers  about  one  thousand  million 
dollars  and  that  this  vast  sum  is  pro¬ 
duced  from  a  crop  averaging  less  than 
one-half  bale  to  the  acre,  the  possibili¬ 
ties  can  be  imagined,  even  on  the  land 
at  present  under  cultivation,  when  it 
is  realized  that  by  deep  plowing,  open 
cultivation,  proper  fertilization  and 
careful  seed  selection,  four  bales  of 
cotton  can  be  grown  to  the  acre.  This 
gain  which  is  possible  for  cotton, — a 
crop  which  has  been  cultivated  for 
more  than  one  hundred  years,  is  typi¬ 
cal  of  the  outlook  for  improving  all 
other  agricultural  production. 

A  most  interesting  and  gratifying 
success  was  attained  a  few  years  ago 
by  Iowa  wheat  growers  who  adapted 
their  wheat  growing  methods  to  rice 
culture  in  the  South. 

It  is  extremely  important  that  the 
magnitude  of  the  cotton  crop  be  not 
allowed  to  overshadow  the  possibilities 
in  other  directions.  Along  the  coastal 
plain  from  Virginia  southward  to 
Florida  and  westward  along  the  Gulf 
coast  are  millions  of  acres  of  the  finest 
soils  known  to  experts,  which  will  yield 


14 


THE  IMMIGRATION  REVIEW 


wonderful  results  to  the  skilled  farmer. 
Development  of  this  land,  strangely 
enough,  has  been  held  back  by  a  factor 
which  will  prove  one  of  its  greatest 
advantages, — the  abundance  of  rain¬ 
fall.  The  country  is  so  level  that  not 
until  the  farmer  has  properly  ditched 
his  land  does  he  get  the  most  bounti¬ 
ful  harvests. 

All  present  economic  conditions  are 
tending  to  make  it  attractive  to  men 
to  return  to  the  land  in  order  to  be 
assured  of  an  independent  living. 
There  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
such ;  men  who  want  to  work  and 
want  to  get  results.  It  is  now  the  un¬ 
discovered  South  which  holds  the  fu¬ 
ture  for  these  men, — the  men  who  un¬ 
derstand  the  potential  factors  of 
wealth  and  how  to  utilize  them. 


During  the  next  few  years  when  the 
stream  of  population,  which  has  al¬ 
ready  started  to  the  extent  of  from 
two  hundred  thousand  to  three  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  per  annum,  toward  the 
Southwest,  turns  with  a  great  swing 
southward  in  its  quest  for  favorable 
natural  conditions  (the  natural  condi¬ 
tions  underlying  opportunity),  there 
will  come  a  revelation  of  wealth  pro¬ 
duction  which  has  never  been  equalled 
in  the  world’s  history. 

It  is  worth  while  to  investigate  with 
open  eyes  the  facts  in  regard  to  the 
South  and  then  to  act  in  accordance 
with  the  findings.  If  the  investigator 
sees  the  wealth,  he  may  be  sure  that  it 
is  no  mirage.  If  he  does  not  see  it, 
it  will  be  the  opportunity  for  the  other 
man  to  build  the  empire. 


3 


4 


